Something interesting (and when I say interesting, I mean
terrible) is happening in India at the moment. Now, I don’t follow cricket—on the
contrary, I think it’s the single most boring sport on the planet, with the
most hideous looking players to boot. Anyway, what seems to have happened is
that a trashy douche bag from Australia, who’s had several run-ins with the law in
Australia including assaulting a police officer, which is a pretty serious
crime, has sexually assaulted a woman and beaten up her fiancé.
So, is the trashy dude being deported back to his country
where he’d surely have gotten his ass sued to kingdom come had he tried the
same antics there? Nope. In fact, India his team seems to be coming to his defence by
trashing the woman. What was an ‘engaged’ woman doing drinking and talking to
men anyway? Oh.My.Effing.Gawd—she is so not behaving like a future wife. Never
mind that the police had a WARRANT that called for Richard Gere’s ARREST after
he kissed some actress chick on the cheeks. This woman, who traded her bbm pin,
and went to her room was FREAKING ASKING TO BE ASSAULTED by someone who would
probably have been robbing gas stations had it not been for cricket.
The assailant must be ecstatic! Not only has he discovered a
country where he can sexually assault as many women as he likes without facing
the consequences (unless the women in question happen to be ‘more important’
than his Indian benefactor)—he can also drink and drive, and not have to ‘fight’
with the police when they try to arrest him. All he has to do is slip the guy a
few thousand rupees (would be a few hundred if he was South Asian, but they’ll
try to milk him for more because he isn’t). [NOTE: you can read more about people getting away with criminal behavior including sexual assault, rape and subsequent murder, and driving under the influence of alcohol here, here, and here].
*EDIT: there doesn't seem to be as much 'victim blaming' in this case as there usually is. That's good news indeed!
*EDIT: there doesn't seem to be as much 'victim blaming' in this case as there usually is. That's good news indeed!
| One of our wedding presents! I love it so much! |
When people assume that the Western world is free of this double
standard bullshit. Oh, it isn’t. [Okay, maybe the double standard isn't AS BIG as it is in India, but it's still there].
Let me give you some examples—Amy Winehouse versus Charlie
Sheen. Winehouse was ridiculed by the press for a long, long time like one big
joke. Any article based on Winehouse (before her death) would have one or two
lines, decidedly towards the end, that had this melodramatically pitiful tone: ‘oh
she’s so talented. What a shame.’ Kinda like they were one of those teachers
who say ‘oh your kid has so much potential, but just doesn’t put in the effort’
to parents in the PTA. Newsflash: that’s just some half-assed crap teachers say
to ALL mommies and daddies to keep the PTA meeting short. And avoid all responsibility
of actually, you know, teaching.
Sheen, on the other hand, gets treated like a legend.
Charlie Sheen beat his wife…HAHAHA. Charlie Sheen passed out in public…HAHAHA.
Etc. Etc. And so on. There are no expectations put on Sheen, like there were on
Winehouse….or Houston…or Lohan. No one expects Keith Richards to clean up his
act either, and he REALLY should—the man looks like a walking zombie.
Women are just not expected to fuck up. And if they do, they’re
expected to clean up their act and come out looking pristine, with every hair
in place. Think Brittany Spears.
Speaking of women who
are train wrecks
I just discovered Cat
Marnell from xojane online magazine, and boy is she a train wreck. The girl’s
a beauty editor who talks about her drug addictions, drinking an
entire bottle of rubbing alcohol, taking
Plan B three times in a month while practising unsafe sex, and so much
more. She’s fragile, damaged, and very vocal about her issues. And
the internet is very, very pissed off. (And I really don’t think people
should be). The girl’s not pretending to be anyone’s role model. Also, who
better to take beauty advice from than someone who has put her skin and hair
through hell and back?
I think she is a prime example of ‘why you shouldn’t put
your kids on mild altering amphetamines for ADHD.’ Hell, I was prescribed Dexedrine
in 2005, went off it in early 2009. Three years down the line, there are days
where I still feel that life would be so much easier if I just had the magic
pill—one that makes me awake, alert, full all the time, and gives me the
ability to sit and do mind numbingly boring tasks for hours on ends. In
hindsight, what I should have done is—a) changed my major into something I was
interested in b) not studied for the MCAT c) learned some life skills like cooking.
Basically, the lesson I learned was—taking a prescription so you can focus on
something you hate isn’t the way to go about living your life.
Fortunately enough, I didn’t end up a train wreck a la
Marnell. But I sure as hell do not have the survival skill, coping mechanism,
or just plain intelligence I guess, to sit and do something in which I have
zero interest (let’s call the task ‘Y’). So every time I sit down to do Y, I
can’t focus, I distract myself, and I forget about Y. I just can’t do it. Now
maybe if someone had a gun pointed at my head, I might sort of be able to do
some of it—but man, I just cannot sit still.
End note: I still haven’t answered the comments yet :(
because I’m actually trying to do Y when I’m supposed to be doing Y—gah…it’s a
mess. And then I have to take it home--which results in me drinking 6 cups of coffee and running around my apartment, failing miserably at concentrating. I hope things sort themselves out soon. In the meantime, I HAVE STARBUCKS! ...or some form of Starbucks at least. That does make things a bit better.



